Naruto:Bloodlines
by otakutrekkiefromtauri
Summary: A/U very similar to the canon but I came up with the idea before Shippuden came out. Basically just my own version of Shippuden. an alternate time-line if you will. Normally I hate these types of stories but this idea just wouldn't leave my head.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto : Bloodlines  
Part One  
Cold as Ice  
Chapter One  
The Cracking Vessel

Sasuke Uchiha; a boy very unlike many others his own age. He did have the standard shinobi training one would expect for a teenager from one of the secret ninja villages and from such a powerful and prestigious clan as Uchiha. Raven dark hair; straight, cutting face; predisposed to either a sneer or a smirk; and a trim, lithe frame gave him the classic 'beat them off with a stick' advantage when it came too the fairer or, to Sasuke, more annoying sex. And it was once to be said he had the truest and closest comrades of all the ninja villages. But in the village of sound he was an oddity, and treated like a strange mix of royalty and leper. The duties of Lord Orochimaru's vessel had destroyed many a lesser ninja and were taking there toll on the last generation of the Uchiha clan. He told himself the only thing that kept Sasuke going was his dream. Not a vision of the future but a dream, of the past , and a hope to rectify it. The lust for power was strong in him and he did all he did for this lust to gain what would achieve his dream.  
He was playing the part and playing it well and he loved it. Even didn't mind the occasional looks or the whisperings of the civilians of the village. Who were they to question the whims of his master. Or the whims of the Vessel for that matter. They were ants, too weak not to be ruled by stronger men. Men like his beautiful and terrible master. He both admired and loathed, both loved and feared the snake sannin that he would one day allow to take his body , and that was already slowly taking his soul. These thoughts rolled over and over in his mind as he cried himself to sleep every night. He had mastered silent tears and even stopped being mortified and embarrassed, which he was at first; even in the privacy of his own apartment. He was not normally the type to cry. Despite being considered by his former friends to be a very moody character, he was always in control of his emotions rarely losing his temper or showing grief, and even his most humorous outbursts were usually kept to an amused snort.  
The truth: something was eating at his soul, crushing his spirit. Some unseen weight, some unpredictable agony. Nobody saw his pain. Not even Sasuke. Or so he thought.  
His purest relief from his secret misery, a misery so secret he even kept it from himself, outside the semiconscious hours just before and after sleep; the hours haunted by knuckleheads and pink-haired kunoichi; his only relief, was the times when he threw off the shackles of his duties as the vessel and was just a boy. something he was just now becoming adept at, thanks to 'her'.  
He had once been worried that he might be gay, but the only guy he ever showed more than passing interest in was the knucklehead himself, Naruto. There relationship was that of rivals, and Sasuke was never tempted to think of him as anything more than an obstacle to overcome. And yet hie never reciprocated feelings for Sakura, either. It was true that back then he had cared for the wench, but that Sasuke was dead now. He was just not that interested in romance. So how did the normally quiet, reserved, and elitist that thought girls of Konoha were simply annoying, become your average lecherous teenage boy in his last few months in the sound village? It took an epiphany dressed in fishnet and leather, with flowing brunette locks and sultry lips to show him how to get people to treat him, not as a body, but as a person, a boy, again. It wasn't hard. She had only to walk by him one day in the training courtyard reserved for high ranking Jonin and personal guards of Lord Orochimaru.  
He noticed her scent first. It hit him like a physical blow. He had never thought much for or against the smell of a female before, or the looks for that matter. His eyes tensed into an analytical expression as his thoughts were thrown into chaos. Her body matched what her smell could do, and was doing it as it took the vessel several seconds to regain his composure. She had the smooth aristocratic features common to ruling families, but wore herself unpretentiously. The fishnet was allowing her upper body to be seductive but not immodest as her halter top underneath it left almost no cleavage. And the rest of her clothes were just right for maximum combat efficiency, which had the added bonus of being just right for maximum 'boy droolage' efficiency.  
She was a visitor from a neighboring village that wasn't really a ninja village but payed homage to Orochimaru and sent there brightest to the sound village ninja academy for training. As the daughter of the leader of that village ,she afforded much courtesy from the lord's retainers.  
Almost as much as her impressive skill afforded her. She was to audition for a place on the new Sound Ninja Five, the elite squad to be reformed with Sasuke at its head. This skill was noticed by her potential squad leader immediately. The smell was captivating enough, but her beauty was enchanting, and attention seeking fan girl like Ino or Sakura, she was not.  
"Your arm will be removed by me or you, your choice." Said arm had moved seemingly of its own volition and was now holding the girl fast , and what would have been to a lesser person, painfully. Her cold look had little affect on Sasuke's iron exterior.  
"I'd like to see you try." he responded without thought but quickly dropped his hand to his side as he saw something in her eyes. Something dangerous, intimidating and a little exhilarating; and oddly a little familiar. Her look was disdainful and lacked the obsequious respect every one fawned onto him or the contempt that some, like Kabuto, let sneak into their expressions. 'She doesn't even know who I am'.  
"Who are you?" he tried to switch from combative to simply curious but the effect had only mixed results.  
"I don't remember being told I had to answer to you, so unless your the Uchiha boy I was sent here to meet than good luck getting me to tell you the time, let alone my name." at his look of indignation and surprise she continued "And if you are such a spineless worm as one would have to be to agree to let another man have his body then, my name is Suki and that's probably the last time you'll hear it because you won't last a full hour in a squad with me."

His only response was the same cold laugh he mastered on the day he finally left Konohakagure. The day he had almost mastered the Mangekyo sharingan; the laugh of a true madman. It sent a chill up Suki's spine.

"Worm, you say, well that is an insult coming from a strapping shinobi master such as yourself," His sarcasm was subtle but did not go undetected as he cut her chance to interrupt, "Still there is something in your eyes. A fire I haven't seen in close to two years. If yo share any other traits with that person then you might as well go home and marry yourself off now, but just that look is worth a second chance. You will spar with me and I will see if you have a chance on my Sound Ninja five."


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto bloodlines  
Part One  
Cold as Fire  
Chapter 2  
Never Hit a Lady 

Sparring; extensive and intense. The vessel struck first blood with a successful palm strike out of a last minute pivot-block of her attempted hit to his groin, but she kept coming with a vengeance. She escalated, using ninjutsu in a simple shadow clone attack that Sasuke assumed would be more. Two clones swept in towards what was now a substitution jutsued log with Sasuke's likeness. As Sasuke appeared with a puff of smoke on a tree branch just outside the range of the courtyard, her trick became clear. Her clones attacked his substitute but all disappeared before any thing interesting happened, he wasn't looking there any more though and she was still barely able to catch him flatfooted as a clone appeared on his branch. His lazy back flip turned in to a mid air spin as he launched two quick kunai and landed feet first on the face of another tree, but not before the clone had given him a bloody nose in the confusion. Already ignoring the clone, he began scanning for her real presence.

Which, as it turned out was closer than expected, on the opposite side of the selfsame tree. It was obvious to any skilled observer that he was just toying with her, testing and probing her skill, but this underestimation of her skill would cost him dearly .

Through the tree, the attack came. He sensed it only at the last second. His adept defenses barely saved his life as Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise and a little panic. Her body had simply floated through the tree as if it was some kind of gelatinous substance and not an ancient solid tree. 'That technique; I've only seen it done by lord Orochimaru. What manner of shinobi is she?' This thought ran through his head as he spring-boarded off the first tree he had been on and came up even with his quarry, now crouching exactly where he had just been.

"I see your not all boast. Well if your up to the challenge, perhaps we can play for real" he said this from midair as he went through hand motions for dragon flame jutsu, he had long since learned to non vocalize his jutsu, in fact it was surprisingly simple. The words were more of a mind focusing device than a necessary part of the jutsu. Some weaker ninja never realized this, always giving away there attacks by yelling out there jutsu, and some jutsu were so powerful it hardly mattered, even still, being a shinobi required control of information, you must learn what your enemy knows and keep secret all that you know.

"I would welcome the challenge, but if what you've shown so far is any indication, you are out of your depth." She barely had time to rush this last out as she quickly leaped from the torch that was previously the nice perch on which she had been crouching. Between his spring board maneuver and her fast avoidance of the flames of Sasuke's cold fury, they had no choice but to slam together midair, in a dance of fists and feet; palms, knees and elbows.

He was in his element now as they traded strikes of all types in a deadly taijutsu storm that left them unable to avoid falling headlong into a large grove of bushes and tumbling into a small clearing about a hundred meters from the practice courtyard. As an audience formed and began the usual catcalls only adolescence grants the human wit to be able to come up with, a well placed openhanded strike sent the mysterious konoichi face first into the dirt, spitting blood.

"You are a fierce fighter, but your style is blocky and ill thought out, I don't know how you made it to chunin but with this skill you won't make my squad. This sparring match is over, you have lost."

His sneer was characteristic but was cut short to be replaced by the now familiar deer in headlights expression she was teaching his face to get stuck into. She burst into smoke; another clone and one that was able to fool him.

"I DO NOT LOSE! The pretty boy shinobi of my village that didn't believe that konoichi should fight learned it the same way you now will, the hard way. " She said this fiercely as her shuriken spun towards him from directly above. His evasive dodge left a rip in his blue turtle neck shirt as he scanned tree branches eagle eyed, for any sign. Again she was using the 'walk-through-solid-object' justu but there was a new wrinkle. Hiding inside a trunk where she was invisible and nigh impervious to attack.

"You can't down me from inside a tree, come out and face me, shinobi to shinobi" his jeer was meant to sting but her only response was to yell "The true way of the shinobi is stealth and deception, whats more subtle that invisibility."

"Impressive, I may have underestimated you. That is a very powerful jutsu to have, but not an overly offensive one, not always a bad thing. but now that I know the manner of your evasive strikes your position is compromised. Attack me at all and leave your self vulnerable. So still, I say, shinobi to shinobi and I can teach you your place among the sound ninja."

The sparring had gathered quite the audience, and the other candidates for inclusion onto the sound ninja five were unsure of who to root for. Lord Orochimaru was due to arrive any second but had not yet made his appearance, and it was unclear as to how he would take the sparring getting this heated with out his presence. The catcalls had long since died out as every one felt the fight stepping up to the next level.

Sasuke was confidant and was beginning to loosen up and enjoy himself. The easiest way to flush her out would be to raze the forest with a few well placed fireballs, but there was the chance she would not survive and her potential would be wasted. If there was one thing Orochimaru taught his followers, it was that all resources were to be valued and husbanded accordingly. So he had a challenge, and rise to it he would. 'Her tree hiding must be a jutsu so even through the wood maybe I can see it with my Sharingan eye.' The answer came to him almost instantly, but he wasn't completely sure. As he threw on his eyes, the identifying mark of the Uchiha, the whole battlefield changed perspective. The effects of her jutsu could be seen as a network of chakra left by her like a slug trail across everything she or one of her clones had touched, allowing her to reappear along this trail at will and almost instantly. Unlike the Byakugan he could not see the flow of a person's chakra, only the effects of a jutsu as it was being cast, but this ones effects were constantly visible as she manipulated the chakra flow to travel to different points within their combat area. Moving like a sniper, not wanting to stay in one spot too long, she would appear long enough to throw a kunai, explosive, or shuriken and then vanish back to her network of chakra within the trees. He could see her trail but not where she was along it at any given moment. Fortunately her sniping tactics were easy enough to forestall. He didn't even need to expend the chakra for a substitution jutsu. But this thought gave him the key to her strategy. She would flit around attacking from hidden locations, not lethal attacks but chakra and stamina expending attacks, while she subsisted on her network, which once formed took very little chakra to keep active.

But now with his eyes he could fight in her world, he just had to get a good look at the hand signs and his mystical all seeing eyes; the eyes that had granted his former master the moniker Copy Ninja; would automatically give him the data to reproduce it at will. In order to get her to recast her jutsu, revealing the hand signs he had but to brake the trail.

So, it came down to dangerous flames again, but this time he had a concrete goal. it would take careful timing to break the chakra trail while dodging one of her well executed drain attacks. he did not want to burn his new prize nin alive.

She had slipped into a rhythm now and was also beginning to enjoy herself, loosening up when, her eyes widened at his surprising fire attack on a section of her chakra trail on the far side of their combat zone. She immediately deduced his intentions. The sharingan eye was a formidable weapon and one she was not sure how to combat. She did not want to deal with someone else flitting through matter.

Uncharacteristically abandoning her position inside a large elderly pine tree, she moved swiftly across open ground to meet him before he even came to rest from his exertions. From the expression on their faces, the two deadly combatants were not offering any quarter as both came out swinging with tai-, nin-, and genjutsu. As the fight was beginning to visibly boil to a climax, the crackle of bluish purple energy starting its fateful crackle across Sasuke's palm,contrasting with the red that now soaked both combatants clothes from minor wounds here and there. An unnatural hush fell on the crowd. Neither teen looked like they had enough blood left after what drenched their clothes to be standing, let alone prepping jutsu and trading blows.

Suki's eyes widened as she saw that Sasuke seemed to be battle-mad and she recognized the the tell-tail signs of the Chidori in his hand.

"ENOUGH!" a preternaturally loud roar split the air snapping the darker haired jonin from what seemed to be a stupor. Shocked eyes flashed across the battlefield as attention shifted to this new presence.

Adorned in his usual self-styled 'kage uniform-a light green tunic-like top, large exotic rope tied in a bow around the middle and classic ninja-style shorts-clad, Orochimaru's intimidating visage cut through the crowd like a cold blade through hot flesh. Despite the deceptively polite expression and calm tone of voice, every person in range of his stare had goosebumps and cold chills. Everyone except of course for the fearless vessel.

"We don't want two of our most skilled shinobi getting damaged now do we? Ah, but your sparring was magnificent, so redolent of a master chess match; move and counter-move, bait and switch, until unprepared the victor springs his timed victory, or in this case her-"

"Master, with all do respect, she was unprepared for the power of my Chidori." Sasuke's ego wouldn't allow him to control this mild outburst. His calm,outward regalness sometime belied his natural arrogance but then again it sometimes just confirmed it. He had mastered the art of "humble pride".

The resulting sounds that came from the evidently amused snake sanin are for sanity reasons better left to the imagination. Needless to say, Suki thought she had found the source of Sasuke cold demeanor and intimidating noise-making capabilities.

"My dear Uchiha, she doesn't have to know what your attacks do to make you waste them on a clone." This reply gave made Suki's already bugging eyes widen to the point of incredulity as she again dissipated in a puff, and her true personage stepped out of a nearby pine tree.

"Yes, she can mask her chakra well enough that a shadow clone becomes indecipherable from the real thing even to your arrogant little all-seeing this be lesson to all of you. Never assume anything, always keep your pride ine check. Even a genin could defeat a sanin if he's caught flatfooted and gets stabbed in the back."

"Yes master," was all the response teh ego deflated Uchiha could muster, and this rather halfhearted.  
Suki looked triumphant, but a little uneasy as to how Orochimaru was able to read her so well. 'What does one expect from a sanin' she thought as she chose to extend her hand to the now kneeling Sasuke. He had collapsed from fatigue and embarrassment gave her offer of support a sneer.

"Well done, you just became the first new member of the new sound ninjja five," Lord Orochimaru enjoyed rubbing Sauske's face in but still wanted the two to be willing to work together. He eyed the boy eager to see his response. He would not begrudge a few revenge assassination attempts, but honestly his plans could not afford it.

Sasuke's thought were in turmoil. He could not bring himself to truly hate this girl that had just struck such a blow to his ego. but why? There was something about her that turned him on and fired him up like nothing this debacle he felt more motivation to train than he had in years. The only thing he could come up with to describe her was 'annoying'. 


End file.
